Mongolia’s government was voted out of office on Jan. 13, 2006. The fragile “grand coalition” began to fall apart on January 2 after Tsogtyn Bataa, a Motherland Party (MP) member of the Great Hural (national assembly), defected to the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP). The MPRP ministers in Prime Minister Tsahiagiyn Elbegdorj’s cabinet resigned, and MPRP Chairman Miyeegombyn Enhbold was elected prime minister and formed a new “national solidarity” government. The new government was composed mainly of MPRP members but also included the leaders of the MP and the Republican Party, Badarchiyn Erdenebat (energy) and Bazaryn Jargalsayhan (industry and trade); a former Democratic Party (DP) member and the leader of the new Party of the People, Lamjavyn Gundalay (health); and three DP members—Mendsayhany Enhsayhan (deputy prime minister), Janlavyn Narantsatsralt (construction), and Mishigiyn Sonompil (defense). The latter were expelled from the DP and formed the National New Party in May. The by-election following the death of Great Hural member Onomoogiyn Enhsayhan (DP) in March was delayed until September, when the seat was won by the minister of education, culture, and science, Olziysayhany Enhtuvshin (MPRP).

Draft amendments to the 1997 Minerals Law, introduced in the Great Hural in December 2005, caused disquiet among foreign investors in Mongolia’s mining industry and also sections of the Mongolian public, who wanted greater domestic control. The drafts were consolidated in committee, and a new redaction of the 1997 law was adopted in July. The government had the right to acquire up to 50% of the resources of deposits discovered with the help of state funds; stability agreements were to be replaced by investment contracts; and local people in proposed mining areas would have more powers over exploitation licenses. A new anticorruption law was also adopted in July. Ulaanbaatar’s new Genghis Khan monument on the south front of the State Palace was unveiled in July by Pres. Nambaryn Enhbayar, but it immediately disappeared again behind the scaffolding and netting covering the unfinished structure of the associated “state reception complex.”

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The discovery of 2,500-year-old mummified remains of a Scythian warrior in the snow-capped Altai Mountains of Inner Mongolia was reported by Hermann Parzinger, president of the German Archaeological Institute, which excavated the site. Tattooed and clad in a beaver-skin coat and felt hat, the blond warrior was interred with two horses, weapons, and vessels made of wood, animal horn, and clay....